Cops: Man Agreed To Swap Burger For Sex

Short on cash, suspect cut barter deal with cop

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Burger Barter

Burger Barter

JANUARY 31--A New Mexico man arrested in a prostitution sting agreed to give an undercover cop a Chili’s hamburger in return for sex, according to a criminal complaint.

Police say that Dominic Calderon, a 36-year-old registered sex offender, was collared Tuesday night after riding his bicycle up to the female officer, who was standing on an Albuquerque sidewalk.

After Calderon and the cop agreed on $80 as the price for a sexual encounter, Calderon asked the undercover cop for her phone number, explaining that he "did not get paid until Friday."

Noticing that Calderon was carrying a bag of food from Chili’s, the vice cop asked what was inside. Calderon replied that it was a hamburger, prompting the undercover to propose a barter deal. “I told Dominic that my fee could be the burger,” the cop reported.

When Calderon agreed to the swap, he was arrested for patronizing prostitutes, police report. While the complaint notes that, post-arrest, “Dominic’s items were tagged into evidence,” it is unclear whether the burger itself is now in a police storage locker.

Locked up in the Bernalillo County jail, Calderon is scheduled for a February 25 bench trial in Metropolitan Court.

Calderon was placed on the sex offender registry due to a 2006 conviction for criminal sexual penetration, a felony for which he served time in the state penitentiary, court records show.

Calderon, whose probation was revoked after the January 28 prostitution bust, works at a Popeyes in Albuquerque, according to the sex offender registry. Calderon is pictured above in a recent New Mexico Corrections Department photo.